Mission Journal: Calderón sees a national threat

Mexican President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa had a message to deliver and it wasn't about press freedom. After hearing the
concerns presented by a joint delegation from CPJ and the Miami-based
Inter American Press Association last week, the president wanted us to know something: He
didn't go looking for a fight against the drug cartels.

In my introductory remarks to the president I argued that
Mexico's criminal groups are fighting not only for the control of physical
territory but also for control of information in many areas of the country. In
this sense, the 30-plus journalists killed and disappeared since the beginning
of the president's term in 2006 are not collateral damage as some have
suggested. Rather, the media is a deliberate target in a campaign by criminal
groups to dictate what can and cannot be reported in the areas they control.

In response to this press freedom crisis we asked the
president to do four things: Push for legislation making crimes against freedom
of expression a federal offense; strengthen the office of the special
prosecutor charged with prosecuting such crimes; create a government commission
to provide security to journalists under threat; and take action to stem abuses
against journalists committed by the security forces involved in the fight
against organized crime.

The president took detailed notes, distracted only
occasionally by a peek at his BlackBerry (Calderón
got to keep his!). When he spoke, he did not immediately respond to our
concerns. First, he wanted to make a point about the difference between
trafficking organizations and organized crime.

Trafficking organizations have long operated in Mexico, the
president explained, but their influence on Mexican life was limited because
they were focused almost exclusively on control of smuggling corridors. Then,
about a decade ago, the situation began to change. Trafficking organizations
morphed into full-scale criminal enterprises, branched out into extortion,
kidnapping, and selling drugs inside Mexico. Instead of being satisfied with
control of a key road or border crossing, they now sought to control entire
territories and assert authority over key institutions ranging from municipal governments
to the media itself. This was the situation Calderón
inherited when he took office, he told us.

Coming from his own perspective on the issue, the president
has essentially reached the same conclusion as our delegation. Attacks by
organized crime on journalists and media outlets are part of a larger strategy
to gain and control territory and represented a serious threat to Mexican
democracy and security, one which requires a robust response from the federal
government. And he embraced our recommendations on how to proceed.

Working his way through our agenda he promised to push once
again for federal legislation criminalizing attacks on freedom of expression, a
proposal he first put forward two years ago after a meeting with CPJ. The
legislation is currently stalled in Congress. Calderón
pointed out that he had broadened the mandate of the special prosecutor for
crimes against journalists to include freedom of expression and said he would
consider additional reforms. He announced that government had already developed
plans for a program to provide physical security to journalists under threat
and said he had spoken with former President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia about a
successful effort in that country. Finally, he said the military and federal police
had improved human rights training and pledged his government would be
responsive to concerns raised by journalists about abuses.

These commitments are important, as is the fact that the
president spent an hour and half with our delegation responding to our
concerns. The meeting was also attended by Interior Minister José Francisco Blake Mora, Attorney General Arturo Chávez Chávez, special prosecutor Gustavo
Salas Chávez, and other senior officials. At the
same time, there is enormous skepticism among many Mexican journalists about
the president's ability to deliver on his commitments. At a public forum with
Mexican journalists from regional media outlets, editors were scathing in their
criticism of government efforts thus far.

This month, CPJ released a special report, Silence
or Death in Mexico's Press, which chronicled the devastation wrought by
criminal organizations that are targeting the media as well as the weak
government response. I presented the report to the president
and his cabinet, passing copies around the conference table. I noticed that the
reports stopped when they reached the attorney general, who was seated next to
the president. I was very pleased, therefore, when as our meeting was adjourned
I saw President Calderon lean over and take a copy. He walked out of the
meeting with our report under his arm.

(Reporting from Mexico City)

Joel Simon is the executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists. He has written widely on media issues, contributing to Slate, Columbia Journalism Review, The New York Review of Books, World Policy Journal, Asahi Shimbun, and The Times of India. He has led numerous international missions to advance press freedom. His book, The New Censorship: Inside the Global Battle for Media Freedom, will be released November 11, 2014. Follow him on Twitter @Joelcpj. His public GPG encryption key can be found here.